WE see many of the top players now hitting their drives 300+ yards. While most of you would love to manage the same, it’s just not going to happen.

The athleticism of the modern tour pro compared to those of yesteryear is quite a leap forward.

As a result of producing less clubhead speed and a less efficient delivery of club to ball, instead of finding yourself with a short iron the green, you’ll face more long irons, hybrids and fairway woods to the green.

It can be easy to see the distance you have to a green and grab the club you think will allow you to reach the green, but have you considered the whole shot? How is the ball lying? What lies between your ball and the intended target, what is the pattern of your poor shots...the list goes on.

One such tempting scenario is when your ball lies in the rough. You reach your ball and to your relief, you see it sitting up well. A fairway wood and you’ll reach the green.

When planning your shot, ask yourself how the ball will leave the clubface the majority of the time. Will it launch high enough to rise above the grass immediately in front of the ball (picture one)? Probably not! In picture two however, the ball has the same lie, but the issue of the longer grass immediately after is no longer there.

I’ve seen many amateurs in pro-ams fall into the trap described above. The same can be said for shots from the fairway when the ball lies on a slight downslope, with an upslope immediate after.

Not as bad an outcome as the rough, but the ball may well smack into the slope and take a considerable amount of speed and distance out of the ball.

Next time you play, plan your shots more carefully and you might just score that bit better.